Strangely, the crowd stopped for a moment.
Bemish turned to the crowd spreading his palms — a local greeting gesture.
"What are you blaming me for?" he asked. "Not all the Earthmen, just me, you know, I can't be responsible for every conman born on the other side of the sky. What do you blame me personally for, Terence Bemish, the Assalah construction director?"
Jumbled shouts came out of the crowd.
"They beat the villagers… Walk around drunk… Took the land away… Make a lot of money…"
"Ah, make a lot of money!" Bemish shouted. "Why don't you make a lot of money? Have I offered you a job? I have! I have hundreds of jobs for you! Whose fault is it that you make less? Is it mine? Or is it those who don't allow you to work at the construction?"
The crowd was getting restless. It was evident that the idea about the sect being guilty of current problems had indeed popped in various minds, especially the young ones but nobody had said it aloud and it's as if an unsaid idea doesn't really exist.
"There is no order at the construction," a cry came out of the crowd.
Bemish raised his hand.
"You are right. I was not able to establish order at the construction."
And he turned to Ashinik.
"Will you be able to establish it?"
"The god is capable of everything and I am his servant here, in the village," Ashinik said.
"Excellent," Bemish said, "Your adherents are right. I can't maintain order at the construction. The sovereign, after all, can't maintain order in this whole country, who am I to maintain order in the spaceport? Scoundrels and cads trickled in to the construction and I can't figure out who the culprits are. So, I am asking you, Ashinik, to become my vice-president, fire everybody you would like to and hire everybody you would like to."
The zealot looked somewhat shocked.
"I can't serve demons," Ashinik said.
"In this case," Bemish said, "You will be responsible for the every binge, fight and depravity happening at the spaceport. Since, if you worked at the construction, you would be able to prevent this depravity. Why do you refuse to do good for the people? Can't you do this? Why then do you muddle people's minds calling yourself a man of power? Don't you want to do this? Why do you call yourself a pious man then?"
The grey crowd looking like a huge centipede with burning eyes made of the torches turned and moved and voices reached Bemish, standing on the stage.
"If Ashinik became a boss, everything would be really different."
Ashinik was silent. Bemish waited — what kind of man is he and what's stronger in him — the desire to hurt the people from the stars or the desire to help the peasants.
"You know my beliefs, Mr. Bemish," Ashinik uttered. "Do you think I will exchange them for your window they disburse money from?"
"I," Bemish said, "Believe in the freedom of conscience. The freedom of conscience is not, when you let your employees believe in what you like, it's when you let your employees believe what they want to. If you want to consider me a demon — go ahead. If you are afraid that a close encounter with me will weaken your beliefs, then they aren't worth much."
"All right," Ashinik said, "I accept your offer."
"You are nuts, Bemish," Giles said dismally.
Annoyed Kissur weighed the gun in his hand and threw it down the black Adera well.
"You are a fool, Terence," he said, "and all of you, Earthmen, are fools. It looks like your chicanery is of more use than your weapons."
The next day, the old bandit was taken to the capital in a truck. On its way, a crowd of peasant zealots stopped the truck, pulled the bandit out and dragged him to the village, somehow the bandit happened to be torn apart on the way.
Not informing local police, Bemish called special troops in masks but with an evident barbarian accent from the capital — mostly they were Kissur's ex-warriors — and they scoured the hired workers' barracks mercilessly fishing everybody suspicious out. They found about fifty such people, beat them senseless, deposited them in a net and attached the net to a freight helicopter. The helicopter made three triumphal circles above the spaceport and flew to the capital.
Afterwards Bemish let Ashinik and his zealots into the barracks. He gave full power to Ashinik and he proved to be right. The young fanatic was a great manager and his intelligence service seemed to know the background of each worker. They knew who in the barracks was a perspective zealot cowed by the bandits and the thieves, who was an honest worker away from all these catfights, who had robbed an Iniss bank last year and who had begged in Upper Kharaine. Ashinik just brought Bemish the lists of workers to be fired and Bemish initialed them without asking for any explanations that he wouldn't get anyway.
The same day, Shavash called Bemish and insistently demanded the arrest of all of the zealots. Bemish refused saying that they was necessary to exterminate the bandits. Shavash said that he would give Bemish two weeks to finish the bandits off and then Bemish should consecutively arrest all the zealots for abusing their authority, lynching and sadistic treatment of their subordinates. Actually, Shavash didn't suggest this plan out loud but rather pretended that it had been Bemish's plan from the very beginning. To destroy one infection using another one and then to write off all the depravities that had happened during the extermination of the former to the latter.
During that week, order and cleanliness came to rule the construction. Bemish didn't entertain any illusions about the methods the zealots used to attain this cleanliness — he saw how two janitors were whipping their colleague for a rug that he hadn't washed at his shift's end — they whipped him bloody with cries and brined whips.
For two weeks, Bemish wordlessly signed Ashinik's requests including a request for buying, at the company's expense, three hundred meters of white silk and three white geese even though Bemish was totally aware that white silk would be used for belts the zealots covered with spells and wore on their bodies and the three geese would be used for the divination about the demons' fate.
In the beginning of the third week, Bemish found his new human resources manager sitting and reading an acetylene welder construction and repair manual that a zealot, considering acetylene welding to be a phantom and illusion, was not supposed to do.
X X X
The next day, a highly placed committee from a Federation financial advisory body arrived. The committee was supposed to study Weian economics and collect data on the Galactic Bank target loan provided by the Federation. From Bemish's point of view, this endeavor was pointless since he hadn't seen a single target loan yet that was used for purposes other than the construction of suburban villas for the officials in charge of the credit distribution. The loans were humongous and the villas came out luxurious. And since the loans were guaranteed by the state, the Federation officials didn't give a damn what they were used for.
The committee landed in Assalah spaceport and expressed a desire to examine the finished buildings and also the construction's next stage, separated from the spaceport's operating part by steel mesh.
The committee was absolutely impressed with the order at the construction site. Parting with Bemish, the committee head, the Galactic Bank of Development Assistance vice-chairman, told him that he had a brilliant trade union leader.
"It's incredible! Terence, where have you found this treasure? Have you seen how the workers listen to him? They listen to him holding their breath as if he was a prophet, and he is not even twenty yet!"
The vice-president said that this guy should immediately get a scholarship and go to Havishem or Harvard and promised to write him a reference letter.
Upon the committee's departure, Ashinik asked Bemish why Shavash hadn't arrived with the Earthmen, since he had mostly been responsible for the distribution of the above mentioned loans. Bemish answered that Shavash had been busy. In fact, Shavash had called an hour before the flight and said that he would come on one condition only — if he could take back with him Ashinik's head in
a sack. Shavash expressed himself exactly this way — "head."
"Do you know," Shavash asked, "That these Following the Way guys organized the last attempt at my assassination?"
"How would I know," Bemish snapped back, "If you hanged completely different people for it?"
X X X
The next day, Bemish saw the Okuri company stock price skyrocketing and it happened since Okuri perchance had secured from the sovereign the rights to develop copper deposits recently found in the Chakhar mountains. Bemish called Shavash to find out if Okuri had really gobbled this chunk or if somebody was spreading the rumors to pick some dough and to find out if there really was any copper ore in the Chakhar Mountains to begin with.
"I will exchange information about Okuri on Ashinik's balls," Shavash said.
"No," Bemish said.
"What's happened to you, Terence, have you fallen in love with him? I haven't noticed you leaning this way before."
Bemish choked.
"I am kidding. Since you love a different — woman," Shavash said heavily and with a hidden meaning. And he dropped the receiver.
This evening, when Ashinik was having a dinner in the common cafeteria, Bemish sat next to him. After tea, Bemish asked.
"Why does your sect dislike Shavash so much?"
Ashinik paused.
"Shavash is a briber and a scoundrel."
"Ashinik, sonny, all Weian officials are bribers and scoundrels. You, however, dislike Shavash much more than, say, Khanida or Akhaggar — while they cause just as much harm."
"Khanida hasn't tried to destroy us."
"That's why. And has Shavash tried?"
"Yes. He filled our circle with spies and dissidents. He bribed those who were not firm in their convictions and they started preaching a lot of nonsense and many people let themselves be lured."
"What kind of nonsense did they preach?"
"He bribed Dakhak and Dakhak started saying that it's wrong to deny salvation to demons and that they would not be damned forever. And he bribed Amarn and Amarn started teaching…" Ashinik suddenly stopped. "Our teachings are none of your business," he finished.
Bemish couldn't conceal his smile.
"Are you sure that every zealot that doesn't believe the same things you do, is necessarily bribed or seduced?"
"These people were bribed by Shavash," Ashinik cut him off.
Bemish paused. Really, Ashinik's words could be true. Shavash himself told the Earthman that nothing was more efficient at killing the zealots than discords among the sects. And the whole thing just looked like Shavash's doing. Yes, this official stole, embezzled and it was not an accident that a joke about him traveled around — out of all gods Shavash envied ten handed Khagge the most — imagine how much you can steal with ten hands? At the same time, only Shavash among all the bribers surrounding him could be seriously concerned with the future danger of Following the Way.
Yes. It makes sense that Shavash tried to take care of the sect in a way that wouldn't cause an international scandal. It would be one thing to hang the zealots publicly pissing off all the human rights committees and another thing to make them throttle each other.
X X X
At the end of the third week, Bemish found Ashinik on the border of an unfinished sector. The lad was holding Bemish's gun that he had probably picked up in a drawer in the office and, having extracted the battery, was contemplating the "doughnut" thoughtfully. Ten meters away from Ashinik, a huge basalt rock arose; it had been left on the field since it was too heavy to transport. Now, a regular Atari could drag the rock away in two trips — it was cut in half and black basalt foam bubbled at the jagged wound's edges.
The light on the "doughnut" top blinked red — the battery was dead. When Bemish approached, the zealot threw the gun on the grass and asked.
"Why didn't Kissur shoot me?" Bemish rolled on his feet.
"I've already told you. I can't let a deliberate murder happen right in front of me even if the victim doesn't mind."
"I thought that this thing couldn't shoot me. At that moment, I thought that you didn't allow Kissur to show that I was right."
Bemish silently looked at the youth. It would be interesting to know how much time it took him to quarter the rock. Star's "doughnut" is specified for forty eight minutes of uninterrupted shooting.
"It's very difficult," Ashinik said, "when you had seen that something was black and then it appeared to be white."
"Have you really had visions, Ashinik?"
"I still have them."
"What are they about? Are they about Earthmen being demons?"
"Yes," Ashinik remarked, "Tell me, could a man be born out of a golden egg?"
"Read a biology textbook," Bemish dryly suggested.
X X X
The next day, Ashinik was managing the forest clearing in a new area and he fainted in the workers' view. He regained his senses in ten minutes and continued working even though Bemish told him on the radio to go and rest.
Ashinik felt fine for two days and he fainted again on the third one. Then, he told the workers that he would turn them into cockroaches if they told Bemish about the fits and Bemish didn't know anything till, in two weeks, Ashinik fainted at a morning business meeting.
He recovered quickly but Bemish, not letting him open his mouth, dragged him to the health services — to Isaak Malinovskii who was in charge of influenza, accidents and malaria at the construction and who also kept terrorizing Bemish with the possibility of a cholera epidemic.
Malinovskii took the youth's blood pressure, put him on the couch, wrapped him with wires and ran a tomography on him. Ashinik didn't resist. He didn't seem to care.
"What problems do you have?" Malinovskii finally asked, having covered the youth with a blanket and sitting next to him.
"Am I fine?"
"You have a bad case of nervous exhaustion. What happens to you before you faint?"
"I see different pictures. I was sitting, for example, at the today's meeting and then everybody around started growing horns and snouts and a wall tied around me and began choking me."
Ashinik paused.
"Tell me, doctor, am I crazy?"
"Why are you asking this question?"
"I have visions. I read this thick book — a psychiatry textbook. It said that if a man saw what others didn't, it meant that something was wrong with his brains."
"If an Earthman came to me and told me what you had just described, I would definitely recommend him a psychiatrist. But the specific subculture you belong to is very different. For Following the Way a trance is normal and the ability to fall in a trance is one of the ways to prove your leadership skills. You are a very nervous and excitable man, Ashinik, but you are mentally normal. And I think that your visions will disappear soon because here, working for the company, you've found another way to be a leader.
Malinovskii attached a plastic drug vial to a syringe and said, "And now you need to sleep long and well."
When Ashinik woke up, it was already day time. The fiery snouts that had buzzed in his mind yesterday disappeared. He lay in a wide bed in a room with carved pink wood walls and a wide open window. A cardinal sat on the windowsill and studied him with eyes that looked like mercury droplets and far away, behind the bird's red feathers and bush greenery two hundred meters of Assalah spaceport control tower soared in the sky.
Ashinik realized that he had probably been moved to Terence Bemish's villa. He hadn't been to the villa yet because there was a lot of work at the spaceport and because Bemish either slept at the spaceport or flew to the capital on business.
Ashinik turned his head and saw a girl sitting next to him. The girl was dressed in a velvet jacket and a long bell shaped skirt sewn with flowers and grasses. A hazy silk belt tied with a five-petal knot fluttered behind her back like butterfly wings.
The girl smiled at Ashinik shyly and Ashinik suddenly smiled back. Something scurried between them — Ashinik imagined for a moment a furry litt
le animal jumping out one smile into another.
"Mr. Bemish said that you should stay in bed and should not get up."
"Are you Bemish's concubine?" Ashinik asked. His voice suddenly acquired the cold confidence that he preached to hundreds of people with.
"Yes."
"I heard about you. You are Inis. How much did he pay for you?"
Inis shuddered.
"He paid for me as much as they asked."
"Does he love you?"
"Mr. Bemish likes me quite a bit." Inis said.
"Why haven't I seen you at the construction?"
Inis smiled guiltily.
"Mr. Bemish really wanted me to be at the construction," Inis said.
"He taught me himself how to work with accounting software and make accounting reports. He made me his secretary. And then this crap happened…
I was once sitting in the office in the evening when three workers came in.
They were going to file a complaint about their manager but when they saw me sitting there alone, they assaulted me and… I was just able to call for help. After that, I asked Mr. Bemish to let me stay in the villa and he agreed."
Inis straightened up and added proudly.
"But I do a lot of stuff here. I check all the bills and last month I saved Mr. Bemish two hundred thousand when I noticed one local official running fake accounts through the company."
She sighed and added.
"We still had to give this official a fifty thousand bribe."
"What software do you use," Ashinik asked.
He had practically no experience with computers and, frankly, he was afraid of these scary answerers that Earthmen always carried with them like handkerchiefs and at every third word took them out of their pockets and spread open. Seeing them always reminded him one of the most popular sect myths — that demons took their souls out and put them in these organic silicon handkerchiefs or iron boxes and the demons' souls felt lonely and blinked on the monitors with multicolored lights.
Inis started saying something but Ashinik had drifted off. "The demon is not very jealous if he leaves his concubine alone with a young man," he thought.
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